The present disclosure relates to a sheet conveying device for conveying a sheet member, in particular to a sheet conveying device for stiffening a sheet member and discharging it from a sheet discharge outlet, and to an image forming apparatus including the sheet conveying device.
Conventionally, a conventional image forming apparatus such as a copier, a printer or the like includes a stiffening member that stiffens a print sheet (sheet member) on which an image has been formed, before the print sheet is discharged. The stiffness of a print sheet represents a resistance against a force applied to the print sheet in a bending direction, and is also referred to as “rigidity”. When a print sheet is discharged while nipped by a pair of discharge rollers, a conventional, typical stiffening member curves the print sheet by pressing the print sheet in an upper or lower direction than the nip portion of the pair of discharge rollers. This is performed in order to give the print sheet a high stiffness. With such a stiffening member, the print sheet is prevented from hanging down immediately after the discharge. That is, the stiffened print sheet hangs down at a farther position from the discharge outlet than not-stiffened print sheets and then contacts print sheets stacked on the sheet discharge tray. As a result, the contact area between the discharged print sheet and the print sheets on the sheet discharge tray becomes narrower, the contact time becomes shorter, and the pressing force at the contact becomes smaller. Accordingly, this prevents the stack state or stack order of the print sheets stacked on the sheet discharge tray from being disturbed.